Finding no Comfort in the Flames
by ryu-kokki-the-tragic
Summary: Sheba and Ivan broke up, and Sheba seeks comfort in another of her allies. Trouble-some ending, love isn't so easy to figure out after all... (ShebaXJenna)


Golden Sun Fan-Fiction.

**Finding No Comfort In The Flames…**

_A relationship has died. Lost in her own mind, Sheba struggles to get someone to _

_help understand her life. Jenna seems convenient, for most things anyway... speech to audience_

"The human race is cruel and unusual!" Sheba stared up at the sky, it had become her muse. The red-haired one sitting next to her glanced over and stated that she must have said that ten times today. Jenna and Sheba had gone to the outskirts of the Suhalla Desert to do some stargazing. It had always been her favourite thing to do while Ivan and she were going out. Now that the relationship had gone south, it only made her more regretful to be out here.

'So are "we" over?' They were the last words she had heard from Ivan before she had left his place. The question was met with a simple 'maybe' from her side before she walked out. 'I'm sure you and that Feizhi will be very happy together...' That had been the last time they had spoken with each other in well over two weeks.

Jenna had prodded Sheba for answers before, and had finally got them. After Sheba retold the story to her, she never spoke directly to Jenna again. Her words just sort of drifted out in all directions. The fire-adept just stayed glancing at her friend for a long while. 'I wish I were wind-adept, so she wouldn't have to say anything, I could just mind read her. But then again, it isn't really fair to rob someone of a secret that they aren't ready to reveal.'

For a moment Sheba broke her habit, and asked Jenna if she ever had trouble in relationships. Jenna hadn't heard a question like that before in her life. Sheba knew the answer but, it would lead into another question. "Of course I have! I mean, who hasn't. But the thing about that is that you pick yourself out, dust yourself off, and start over with someone new." Sheba was unimpressed with Jenna's cliché spouting. Instead of a vocal response, one eyebrow went up. Jenna realized at that point that her tendency to joke had not been a wise move. "Jenna I'm serious. What should I do about my lost love? What happened the last time you broke up with someone? How did you take it? How long was it before you started dating again? Are you even listening to me...?" The questions came rapid fire.

Jenna's mind worked differently than Sheba's; that was obvious. She went with anyone she liked, male or female. She felt proud that she wouldn't limit herself to what anyone thought was typical love. Besides, Jenna had never really thought about traditional "love". She knew passion. She knew the comfort that comes from being with a "significant other". However, her definition of love was sketchy at best. She was only now hit with the fact that her relationships, be they with a man or woman, were only of lust.

She took a deep breath, stared up and answered quickly. "Lost love, as you put it, is usually for the best, you should just start over again.

As for me and the last relationship, we never spoke again and I went back to Isaac. I didn't really get so broken up, because to tell the truth I was using the other guy to make Isaac jealous and it worked. It wasn't more than a week before Isaac and I were together. Yes I am listening to you, but, the questions need to slow down." Sheba turned away from her. There she goes again. Isaac, Isaac, Isaac. It's all she ever talks about. I never had to be psychic to know… She's **SO** obvious. Of course I knew about her love for Isaac. It played out like this… She went out with Isaac once, dumped him, picked up someone else, went out for a week or two, dumped again, came crawling back to Isaac. Eventually, Isaac just got tired this game, so he practically abandoned her for Mia. A long pause, devoid of speech followed, then...

"Sheba, I get the feeling that you aren't telling me everything." The response must have taken about five minutes for Sheba to organize in the head, but even then she was confused about what she was saying. "How do you know if you've found the love of your life? Is there such a thing even? Do you just wake up one day and it strikes you? Is there truly someone out there for every one? If so, how do we ever find them? Jenna, answer me!"

She placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder to slow her down once more. "If I had the answers to that I would have told you long ago." Sheba looked dejected. She got up from her spot and began to walk away. No words were needed. Jenna had done her best to help her, but, Sheba still didn't think it was enough. She just walked back to Lalivero silently, save for the occasional sniffling one resorts to when questions of love go unanswered. Jenna stared at her as her form gradually vanished from sight. 'She'll have her answer soon.' Jenna chuckled to herself. "If Sheba's one to believe anyone has answers to question like that, then she's got another thought coming."

When Sheba went back to her house, she immediately went to sleep, without even taking to time to change. 'MAYBE the answers will come to me in a dream like before.' Sheba commented on her particularly fuzzy predictions for a Jupiter aligned person. 'They're certainly not coming to me when I'm awake!'

She slept soundly, until an image struck her. A single word flashed before her eyes. The dream wasn't accompanied by any people or objects, just the word. It was intensely glowing. This wasn't a long dream, just long enough for her to get a grasp on it. The message seemed crystal clear for once.

"Jenna! Jenna!" She ran down the stairs to where her fiery-haired friend had been staying over. She grabbed onto her shoulder firmly and shook. "Are you awake?" Jenna stirred slowly, rolled over to face her and replied, "I AM NOW!" Mornings weren't the best of times for the Flame Sorceress. Nor were they the best of times for anyone near her! "What do you want now?" Jenna rubbed her face in an effort to wake up for real. Sheba was still in shock from the screaming. For a moment they stood silently facing each other. Jenna broke the silence. "Sorry…" her reply was paired with a feeble index finger/cheek scratch. " 's alright. It probably could have waited until you were up anyway…" This hindsight caused Jenna to collapse back on the couch.

"Well, out with it." "Right, let's get down to business." Sheba said, plunking herself down on the couch. "Last night I had another vision." "Really, what of?" Jenna was tremendously excited.

"Well, every night for the last week or so, I've had a message come to me in my dreams. It started out barely visible, blinking. Each night it got closer and closer and clearer and clearer. Last night I saw it perfectly!" "…and what was it?" The fire adept spoke with a voice halfway between anxiety and irritability. "Va-" But the word was cut off by Jenna. "Vault! It was Vault right? It was saying that Ivan has been lonely and depressed without you. Now, you must journey off to Vault to save him from his despair! Then, you will live happily ever…" Well, Jenna had gone into one of her 'fairy-tale-trance-phases' again. Sheba's eyes went as wide as was believable. "Aren't I right? You wouldn't be giving me that weird look if I wasn't right, right?" Sheba shook her head. "I wish it was that simple. The word was actually, Vale." She sort of glanced away as the last word slipped out of her mouth.

Jenna got to her feet and said in a confident tone, "Well, then we'll just have to head on back to Vale!" Sheba stood up next to her. "Alright, let's get going then." The fire-adept grabbed her Tisiphone-edge sword and punched the air with her other hand. "To Vale! But, first to food! Sheba collapsed to the couch. "Well, we will need food for our long trip westward." They immediately began packing, and gathering up their Djinni.

They'd need all the power they could get, now that the trip would be made by only two of them, instead of a full group.

The trip would take them about four days of non-stop traveling to arrive at Vale. That is, if they weren't seriously injured by the wild monsters, seeing as you don't get a lot of traveling done while lying in a bed at an inn. Therefore they had left that very day. The first day saw a great amount of progress westward. The monsters were somehow weaker than they had remembered. On the other hand, they had done a lot of training outside of Gondowan just mere months ago.

There were the typical goblins, gnomes, and wolves that tried attacking them, but they never so much as left a scratch on the travelers. As such, they did the one thing that has been the downfall of many a warrior; they got overconfident.

One particular example was during a fight with a pink ape. They weren't worried, but maybe they should have been. Before Sheba even thought out a plan, Jenna jumped right in, sword raised high. Once, twice and again the blade cut through the air. But something was amiss. Each time the attack came down at the beast, it jumped away at lighting speed. The sword came down and dug small holes into the ground. While it wasn't uncommon for a sword attack to miss its mark, this ape had successfully evaded about twenty attacks in a row. Jenna ran back to Sheba screaming, "You can jump in anytime! I really wouldn't mind at all1" It was true, Sheba hadn't made a move. She didn't know what was wrong, usually she'd hit first. But, her feet stayed planted this time. Not in fear, in bewilderment. She had stood there for well over a minute while Jenna slashed away in vain.

"Fine don't! I'll handle it myself!" Jenna called out while charging back in. She decided a different attack method was in order. Her Djinni, Cannon would do the trick, this was true but the ape was far from defeated. It pounded its chest and summoned another one beside it. This newly found fighter followed suit and a third appeared. Jenna's mouth gaped at this point, and she said in a most articulated manner, "This is never going to (censored) end, is it?"

Nevertheless, she attacked onward. Intermittently, a strike made contact, but they just weren't going down. Over and over again Jenna had to dig out a potion to heal herself since she had run out of psynergy through the use of her aura abilities. She would have to bide her time until her magical armor restored it. Still, Sheba stared fixedly at the fire-adept. 'How graceful she is… I wish I could be as strong as she is, because she seems as fast as I am... She is the perfect balance... She got everything… I can mind read, sure, but it seems like she has everything else... She always goes out with whoever she wants… No wonder why, she's beautiful…' Sheba's mind had started to drift, and she was of no use to anyone.

At one point, an ape picked up a log and hurled at the disorientated wind-adept. Jenna jumped in to aid her with her pound power. The log was driven into the ground and Sheba was safe for the moment. However, Jenna was tired by this time, and the first ape knew this. So it closed in. Jenna was fiercely hit to the ground. She was racked with pain, and unable to stand. At this Sheba snapped back to reality. Her friend was injured and it was all her fault. She could feel the rage building inside her. Not since the Doom Dragon was awakened did she feel this much desire to destroy something. In an instant the sky darkened, a bolt of lightning struck the ground just ahead of the apes, stopping their charge against the wounded Mars based fighter. Sheba had summoned Thor! The being descended from the clouds and cast its spell at the apes. The thunder rolled up and down the country side as the monsters were electrocuted. They disappeared after the sky cleared.

Sheba rushed over to her downed friend. She had to revive her, but how? The small Wind-adept struggled to raise Jenna onto her shoulders. She trudged slowly across the valley and during this slow procession every monster that so much as looked shiftily at her got a sharp blast from her thunderstorm. Sheba had helped Jenna walk all the way to the next town, and during that time the armor finally began to restore Jenna's powers. By the time they had arrived at the gates of Tolbi, Jenna had just enough strength in her to cast healing aura, before collapsing again. Sheba felt a renewed power within her and made the finally effort to get to the inn.

Once inside, she dropped her now unconscious friend into the bed and rushed immediately to the counter where she questioned the innkeeper what the room would cost. The price was totaled, with proper medical assistance, to be 5,000 coins. Sheba was aghast. Never had an inn charged so much. Then again, it was Tolbi during the busy season. She poured her cash out reluctantly, at the same time resolving to never stay here again. Her money was counted up. She was rubbing her forehead when she found out that it was about 600 coins short!

"Well, how long would I have to work here for, to pay the balance?" The blonde said sheepishly. "Sure, you could work to make up the difference. As for how long it will be…" His thumb and forefinger stroked his pointed beard. "Maybe slightly longer than your friend needs to heal…" The man at the counter seemed in the mood for cruel jokes. Sheba began mind reading him. The owner intended to keep her here at least a week!

Jenna recovered entirely after three days. On the morning of the fourth day, Jenna asked Sheba why they hadn't left yet. They had already gone past the projected length for the trip and they weren't even half way there. Sheba took a moment away from washing the dishes to glance back to her friend and say. "Give ya three guesses!" Jenna seemed uneasy, or perhaps more anxious. "We ran out of money, didn't we?" Sheba nodded silently, face thoroughly reddened. She went back to work. Jenna sprang up from the bed, volunteering her help. "Sorry, I got us into this job." Sheba just stood there for a moment and then hand her a cloth to begin drying. "'s alright. I should have been awake during the battle." Jenna started to work through the set of plates, glasses and odd spoons, but it wasn't long before curiosity got to her.

"Ok, I'll bite. Why weren't you awake?" One eyebrow was up; one was down. Sheba tried to just ignore the question, but the will of Jenna won out. "Tell me, aren't you getting enough sleep? Or were you distracted? Or are you afraid of pink apes?" "No, it's none of those. I just... I was just thinking... about something..." "You mean someONE."

"Maybe..." Sheba turned her head and gave an embarrassed smiled. "It's Ivan again. We're not going to Vale, its Vault right? You miss him; don't tell I'm wrong..." "Well you are. I told you the thoughts I had about him are dead, they aren't coming back. I can't even stand the thought of him any more. Argh! Why do you keep insisting that it's him; it's like you're not even listening!" "Ok. OK. Methinks the lady doth protest too much!" Jenna snickered to herself. Sheba leaned her head to the side slightly and asked when Jenna had time to learn Shakespeare. "I have no idea... Just sounded right..."

When the dishes were done, they reported back to the owner. "What more do we have to do?" Jenna asked irritably. "Don't speak to me in the tone, you're quite frankly lucky that you've got a friend like this to help. You're also lucky that I was willing to exchange your help to pay the extra money. From the kindness of my heart I took you people in, then you couldn't pay, so I gave you a job. Try to be nice to people and this is the thanks that they give you..." The man went back to the paperwork he was filling out at his seat. "Does this mean we can leave?" The girls asked in unison. The man waved them away saying, "Sure, whatever, I don't need ungrateful help... Go ahead, get outta' here." They nodded and saw themselves out.

"What was that guy's problem anyways Sheba?" The red-haired one questioned. "It's Tolbi in the busy season. Ok, picture Anemos times fifty. There are hundreds of people in and out of there every week." The shorter one replied. "Fair enough, but he was still grumpy." "Hey, no argument there..."

Eager to make up for lost time; the travelers simply used their magic for every battle that day. They had indeed made great westward movement.

By the time they had considered stopping, it was well past nightfall. The camp they had set up had a roaring fire and their sleeping bags were unfurled. While they were eating, Jenna would occasionally pipe up with something like, "Geez, really wish we had Pier's flying ship with us, that'd really speed things up." Sheba nodded at these observations before staring back at the fire. It was true, with that ship this trip would be finished in just over one day...

Jenna looked at the blaze too, but more infrequently. Sheba practically stared at it the whole night. When they had settled in for the night, Sheba was lying on her back staring at the sky, as if it was the only thing to give her hope for this journey. "So, what are you thinking?" Jenna ruined the tranquility. "Huh?" "Oh come on! I know you're trying to figure something out. You always are." "Well, I guess it was just that I wondered what was in store for me in Vale. I had another vision, you know." "Hm, I do now. What was it this time?" Jenna rolled over in her sleeping bag to face Sheba's answer. "It was just like the other one, but there was another word with it. The two words were 'FROM VALE'. Now I'm wondering who will be." This was the answer she was willing to give. "Sure you don't know who it is? From Vale? Could be my brother Felix... Or maybe it's someone from new Vale... Wonder of we know this person already?" Sheba didn't move, she just said "Goodnight Jenna." "What part of this story are you leaving out? The dream said Felix too, didn't it?"

The words that Sheba replied with were harshly pointed. "The dream spoke as clearly about me and Felix as it did about you and Isaac... That is my answer, if you don't like it, though! Goodnight Jenna."

The fire-adept rolled away muttering something to the tune of, "You're not telling me something..." It wasn't long before she was snoring blissfully, Jenna that is. Sheba was still gazing into the vastness of space. There was indeed another answer, and it was burning at her, any second it was ready to explode from her mouth. She was petrified with what she had told herself the result would be. She was wondering if Jenna knew. The way she talked, she must have suspected it. It seemed as though this fire user had equally acute wind strengths. Either way this problem wasn't going to resolve itself. What was it? Probably just an infatuation... Even though Sheba was still transfixed by the fire-adept's beauty, she couldn't bring herself to admit it, to Jenna that is. She herself had believed this for at least a while... She knew that didn't make sense. Sheba was up nearly the whole night asking questions to herself. 'Does love know of time at all? Can you be going on about how love let you down sometime and before you know it, it starts up again? Does love just hit you one day? Did she ever truly love Ivan? Did he ever love her?' She had just then decided that Ivan was only just a person with similar powers, just a person who understood what it was like. 'Maybe Ivan did love me and I simply can't return the love. That would explain my obsession with Jenna. Or, maybe I'm just incapable of love... Maybe I have just grown cold. Maybe all this fighting has killed my emotions for anyone.' She hated that thought. It was also impossible. 'You can't just drift away from one person, and think that you will never figure love out. Or can you?" She should talk to Jenna about this. She had to talk to Jenna about this! Unfortunately, before that happened, the questions popped up again.

"What if I say something and it comes out wrong! Even worse, what if she gets all creepy about this. It would be kind of unnerving to get this news all of a sudden...' Nonetheless, she was sick of torturing herself with these questions. Sheba had to speak up. 'It's no use holding a secret like this in. Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, and don't be afraid...'

Sheba scooted her sleeping bag closer to Jenna's and prayed for this not to be awkward, at least not too much so... "Jenna... Jenna... Wake up." Sheba whispered in her friend's ear. She stirred, blinked and then opened her eyes fully. The peace in this camp was shattered by her screaming. "Is it the monsters again? Because if it isn't, let me sleep!" Sheba blinked and recoiled to her original spot. "I was going to tell you the rest of my story..." Her words were accompanied by the tapping of her index fingers together. "Well, go ahead." Sheba paused slightly, 'Yup, it's awkward. I haven't even said the problem yet...' "Jenna, I think I know who this dream has connected me to. In a way, we never needed to go Vale, but in a way we did. The fact makes me feel guilty about when I was in that fight. But it was also at that time that I realized how I feel. When they attacked you, I felt like I needed to protect you, at all costs. I think that I love you. No that isn't clear enough; I do love you. That was why I was just staring at you during the fight, I was imagining us together. When that monster attacked you and you were hurt… Well, I just don't know what I would do if something happened to you. I truly love you…"

Jenna sat up and leaned herself against a log. "Really? I can't help feeling that this is too sudden a decision for you to make. Jumping in and believing in love too quickly is something I'd do." Sheba moved closer to Jenna again. "Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But I believe it." Sheba got even closer. "Kiss me Jenna, I want to know what its like." Jenna was very flattered. It may have even gone past that point when Sheba leaned in all the way and their lips touched. Sheba's heart rate quickened. But the kiss was not to last. Jenna pulled back. "Sheba this isn't right." The facial expression on Sheba dropped like a stone into a well. Noticing this, Jenna changed her answer. "No, what I meant was, we're out in the woods! I'm sure if we get going we can stay at the inn in the next town. That would be a better place for…" Her words were cut off by the fact that her lips were pressed again to Sheba's. She pulled away quickly and said firmly, "If we don't stop here, we may not be able to, and then we'll still be out in the woods!" Sheba nodded and helped the fire adept get packed up. The camp was disassembled in under thirty seconds.

The trip to the next town and into the inn was made at sort of a half hand-in-hand walk, half all out run. Once inside the inn, they threw down whatever money it took to get a room. They did save money on their stay this time, their room only needed one bed…

At the door, Sheba slowed down her pace. While Jenna rushed into the bathroom to get ready. Sheba dropped their armour in the corner, and did the same with their backpacks. She began pulling off her robes when Jenna walked back into the room. Sheba quickly turned and though, 'Jenna gets undressed quickly.'

Sheba pulled of her clothes until her outfit matched Jenna's; nothing but their unmentionables. They climbed onto the bed and began. They started with a few seconds of little kisses, just teasing each other. That didn't last long and they soon were making out like before. The moment that the real kiss began, Sheba noticed something different; Jenna was warm. She always had been, but this was more so. In fact, her face felt blazing hot. Sheba ignored this, figuring Jenna simply gets warmer when she is emotional. After all, this seemed to make sense, since she was fire-based. The question turned around on her, 'Does she notice a cool breeze when she kisses me?' Sheba tried to get the idea out of her mind, it was just too distracting.

When Sheba finally could concentrate, the kiss was more enjoyable. Her heart rate had sped up rapidly. Jenna was still hot, thermally and physically. For a moment they paused and broke apart slightly. Jenna held a serious tone and said, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Sheba only said that if she wasn't sure, she wouldn't be here. They'd still be out in the woods! So Jenna reached around to Sheba's back, and vice versa, and the bras came off. Sheba quivered slightly, but they started again. The passion with which they were kissing grew higher and higher. Tongue slid over tongue, but it wasn't long before the kiss started connecting with other parts of Jenna's and Sheba's body...

The next morning dawned earlier then either Jenna or Sheba figured it would. Jenna woke up first, looked over at the sleeping blonde, and decided to kiss her again. Sheba awakened in Jenna's arms, being softly kissed out of her dreams. Sheba needed a quick breath of air before she said in a timid but beautiful voice, "Good morning lover." But at the same time that she said it, she felt a slight unease within her. She tried to ignore it and just assumed it would take some getting used to. Jenna began kissing her playfully, asking if she wanted to do it again. "Ok, let's go." Sheba said tiredly. The first time Sheba was with Jenna, it was something special, her first time with a woman. Even though it was just last night, it seemed so long ago… And it was different. This time was still passionate, but, Sheba didn't get the same exhilaration this time. Sheba didn't enjoy her time spent with Jenna that morning in the same way she had, only last night. The thrill was gone, and Sheba was worried. Had her love for Jenna died already. Unknowing, Jenna put a lot of effort into the kissing that morning, but when she noticed the lack of feedback from Sheba, it killed the pleasure for her. She pulled away and sat up.

"What's wrong Sheba. Are you upset this morning?" Her lover looked away, then her glance drifted back and she nodded slightly. "Oh god, I know what happened… Last night you had second thoughts didn't you. You don't want this anymore, do you?" Jenna's voice had a solemn air to it that only served to add to the disappointment. Sheba answer another simple 'no'. "Jenna, I don't know what's wrong." Sheba felt greatly inadequate. "That's alright, maybe your just not in the m..." Jenna trailed off. Sheba asked why she didn't finish that sentence. "It just dawned on me. You thought you were in love with me, but now you see that it was just an obsession. So if you got the vision of your true love being from Vale, and you thought you were in love with me..." "Go on!" Jenna didn't want to speak, but Sheba demanded it. "...if you don't love me, do we go on to Vale? Or is this journey dead?" Sheba hung her head low. "I'm not sure. I don't want to believe these visions again, if they just lead me to this." Jenna nodded knowingly.

The wind-adept got up and pulled her robes on quickly, while Jenna still sat there. Sheba threw Jenna's clothes to her and sat down on the corner of the bed, but she faced away from the fiery woman. Jenna got dressed as quickly as she had gotten undressed. There was a long silence were Jenna just stared at Sheba's back, while Sheba just stared away. "We went at this too fast, didn't we? I guess I just thought that I could give you your answer…" Jenna tried to get a response; Sheba wouldn't talk. Sheba got up from the bed and walked to the door. "I'm leaving." Sheba calm was unnerving. Jenna crawled across the bed to get nearer to Sheba. "I'm sorry, that I did this to you, but I never expected this to happen…" Sheba put her hand on the doorknob. "Please answer me, I said I'm sorry. Just answer me, please, now!" The doorknob turned. "Sheba, why won't you answer me? What do I have to do to get you to talk to me?" Jenna got up from the bed and tugged and the shirt-sleeve of the blonde. The door opened. "I shouldn't have played you along like that, and I truly wish I hadn't. I guess I was selfish, I wanted love, too. But I suppose I really wasn't thinking about the morning after. I just thought about the night… about the passion… it wasn't worth it… I don't want to lose you forever, don't go…" Jenna's eyes dropped to the ground. Sheba turned back to Jenna and said, with hints of tears building in the corners of her eyes, "No, I don't want your kisses anymore. And I sure as hell don't want you. You're not sorry…" The door closed behind her silently and she was gone...


End file.
